[nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice

Fri Jan 29 18:01:28 UTC 2016

Hi Elizabeth, 

  Aleeha has brought up some good points. 
 I am a person who is a big believer in the work our NFB training centers do.  The centers  build confidence and skills in ways that words can’t quite capture.  A great many people such as myself have benefited from those skills  in both good times and tough times and when a person is ready and willing to look into  their options for training and eventually put in the time, I think they might find they were really glad that they took the time to go get the skills.

 As it relates to your health concerns, I’m sure that the centers are more than willing to   support  you and help you do what you need to do to  manage whatever conditions you might have.  I hold the belief that if you want to get the training that pretty much anything else can be made to work.
 in the immediate, do talk to the people you  need to in order to get the  accommodations you need because it’s your education and whatever you need to learn  is whatever you need.  Remember that you have the right to get the accommodations and the responsibility to  insure you get them.

> On Jan 29, 2016, at 9:26 AM, Aleeha Dudley via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> The reason I say that you should attend a training center, Elizabeth, is because it will really help you build the confidence in yourself that you desperately need in order to begin to succeed in school. You also need some help getting assistance from state rehab. That can come through a couple of different channels, either from your state NFB affiliate or a client assistance program (CAP). They will help you know your rights and how to advocate for what you need. In your classes and job, you are going to need to know Braille, which is why you would need to learn it rather soon. I know that it isn’t always ideal to take time out of your schooling and career path, but it is what must be done if you are to be successful, at least in my opinion. I did not want to go to a center for years. I always thought it would take too much time away from my already delayed schooling and my career. However, a conversation I had with someone I have a great deal of respect for changed my opinion. I encourage you to at least give it some thought. Rehab has to, by law, assist you with getting training wherever you want, so one of the NFB training centers is an option for you. 
> As for your struggles with your class, I do have a deep understanding of what that is like. I cannot speak of it here, but I have dealt with issues in the past that have given me a lot of experience on this topic. You may need to go up the chain now. Everyone has a boss. Try contacting the people in charge of the disability services office to see if they can help. Someone said it quite well: if you cannot afford your own laptop, the ones in the computer lab on the school’s campus should be accessible to you. NVDA is a good way to make them accessible, although it can sometimes be difficult to start from the thumb drive. 
> These are just some of my thoughts.
> Aleeha 
>> On Jan 29, 2016, at 12:04 PM, Karl Martin Adam via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org <mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Christina, the point of her attending a training center would be to learn braille well enough to use a slate and not need the technology she can't afford.  I'm not sure that would be feasable, but that was the suggestion that was being made.
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Christina Moore via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Date sent: Fri, 29 Jan 2016 11:53:56 -0500
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] A Struggling Blind Student Looking for Some Advice
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I am sorry to here about the struggles you are having. They are very
>> unacceptable and I hopw that you can find some solace in that you are
>> not alone in having difficulties of this sort.
>> These things should not happen but they do and we all can do our best
>> to educate others but at times that falls on deaf ears as they say.
>> First, in my opinion a reasonable accommodation for you is to be
>> allowed to have a recorder in your lectures. I am not sure what
>> devices you are using/have access to currently but you should be able
>> to record your lectures so you can listen to them later to study the
>> information.
>> Second, if you do not mind me asking, why is your vocational rehab not
>> helping you? You are pursuing an educational degree and need
>> technology that it is not surprisingly, too expensive for you to pay
>> for. They should be willing/able to help you pursue your educational
>> goals.
>> Third, the suggestion to attend the NFB center is an interesting one.
>> I have never attended such a center myself but I believe it would put
>> off your education considerably which is something you should consider
>> when weighing your options. I hear the centers are very useful but I
>> am not sure how it would benefit you since yes you would go home with
>> skills but still without the resources to use those skills. Advocacy
>> can go a long way but only to a point. If someone does not have the
>> economical means to pursue their education and their state and other
>> organizations are not willing to help, than a training center will do
>> nothing. Just my thoughts on that suggestion.
>> Fourth, it seems like you are in a position where a tutor for this
>> class would be beyond necessary. The tutor can read the notes from the
>> TA and others, ask you questions, be a scribe for exams/reader and
>> they can get paid for it.
>> I hope this helps you get somewhere. Your disability services should
>> provide the reader/tutor/scribe that is a reasonable and essential
>> accommodation for your circumstances.
>> 
>> On 1/29/16, Aleeha Dudley via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> One of the big things that I want to say to you is this: do not give up. One
>> of the things that would really help you is to get the Braille skills and
>> problem solving skills from an NFB training center. You will gain confidence
>> in yourself and be able to do whatever you want to do. I think that would
>> really help you when it comes to getting accommodations for yourself and
>> truly succeeding in your college life.
>> On Jan 29, 2016, at 10:50 AM, Elizabeth Mohnke via nabs-l
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hello All,
>> 
>> There was a message thread on here not too long ago about someone being
>> upset about not being able to use a computer in the classroom. It seems
>> as
>> though people on here were offended by my response to this message.
>> However,
>> from my point of view, being able to use a computer in the classroom
>> seems
>> to be more of a privilege rather than a right because not everyone can
>> afford a computer that they can take to class.
>> 
>> I really wish I had the money to buy a new computer that I could take
>> with
>> me to class because then maybe I would not be so worried about failing my
>> exams due to a lack of accommodations by my college. When I took classes
>> before, I was able to use a computer in the testing center for answering
>> short answer and essay questions that were on my exams. However, it
>> appears
>> as though the college no longer offers this as an accommodation. The
>> college
>> is supposed to have computers on campus with JAWS on them, but most of
>> the
>> time, these computers do not work correctly, and every time I ask about
>> the
>> status of the computer with JAWS on it in their new testing room, there
>> always seems to be something wrong with it. So I am really at a loss as
>> to
>> what to do for my exams, and I am really scared that I am going to fail
>> my
>> class because of a lack of accommodations.
>> 
>> So what exactly am I supposed to do if I do not have a way to write out
>> my
>> answers for the short answer questions that are going to be on my exam?
>> My
>> college seems to rely heavily on the disabilities office to provide and
>> approve accommodations on campus. Therefore, if I talk to my professor,
>> she
>> will most likely tell me that I would need to talk to the disabilities
>> office in order to get any accommodations for my exam. But the
>> disabilities
>> office does not appear to provide the accommodations I need, so I feel
>> like
>> I am just caught up in some bureaucratic mess.
>> 
>> It seems to me the only reliable accommodations the disabilities office
>> provides for exams are readers. However, this does not work for me when
>> answering short answer questions on exams because I find it rather
>> difficult
>> to write anything longer than a couple of words by dictating it to
>> someone
>> else to write down for me. So the best accommodation for me in this
>> situation is to use a computer since I do not know Braille very well. But
>> since I do not have my own computer that I can take to class, and the
>> college does not appear to know how to properly maintain the computers on
>> campus that have JAWS on them, I feel as though I am at a loss as to what
>> to
>> do for my exams. If I had known this was the situation I was going to be
>> facing, I probably would not have signed up to take this class.
>> 
>> I guess some days I just really hate being blind. And I get frustrated
>> when
>> I see other blind students get pretty much everything handed to them from
>> their vocational rehabilitation agency. Not everyone gets privilege of
>> receiving services from a vocational rehabilitation agency, and not
>> everyone
>> has the privilege of having others help them advocate to receive services
>> from the vocational rehabilitation agency either. And I guess I just find
>> it
>> rather difficult to make anything out of my life given my limited amount
>> of
>> resources and a lack of support from other people.
>> 
>> Anyway, I am sorry if I have offended anyone with any of my messages to
>> the
>> email list. This is not what I mean to do. I am just really frustrated by
>> life right now, and I am really struggling in trying to figure out what
>> to
>> do. It seems to me like nothing in my life ever works out, and that I can
>> never really get the support I need from others when I need it. The NFB
>> has
>> never really been there for me before, so I am rather skeptical that I
>> will
>> be able to receive any help or support from the NFB, but I thought I
>> would
>> at least give it a try.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Elizabeth
>> 
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